72 ' ON THE BOTANY OF THE BRITISH POLAR EXPEDITION. 



A great change in the Flora of this coast takes place here; 



Vaccinium uliginosnm, Cassiopeia tetragona, Pedicularis flammea, 

 Carta alpina, Hierochloe alpina, Lycopodium SeJar/o, and the two 

 Woodsias find here their northern limit. This Sound forms (as 

 far as we know) the northern boundary of Ellesmere Land and 

 the southern of Grinnell Land ; it is from twenty to thirty miles 

 in width, with a large island (Backe Island) some ten or twelve 

 miles across, situate in its eastern opening. From Hayes Sound 

 to Cape Lieber, about 160 miles, there stretches a barren cliff-girt 

 coast with no harbourage for plant-life in any quantity. The rock 

 is an unyielding, hard limestone, which is seldom diversified with 

 valleys and seems incapable of forming soil ; for many leagues on 

 the plateau inland (1500 to 2500 feet) this formation rolls away 

 in a scene of unbroken desolation — a vast shingle of hard angular 

 blocks devoid almost of even lichen life. Districts VIII. and IX. come 

 under this division, and include many points at which we landed 

 during August, 1875, and August and September, 1876. Braya 

 alpina was first met with on the cliffs of Walrus (Norman 

 Lockyer) Island in lat. 79° 30', but became frequent afterwards ; 

 Ccrastium latifolium (var. cmspititsum), a rare plant, found previously 

 by me at Disco, was gathered by Dr. Coppinger in Gould Bay in 

 lat. 79° 43' ; Samfraga ccespitosa (not uniflora) occurred at Radmore 

 Harbour in lat. *80° 22', a form I only met with elsewhere at 

 Disco. Nothing else was noticed worthy of mention, and these 

 two districts yielded only some tw T o dozen species, several of which 

 probably only occur at Dobbin Bay. This coast, though seemingly 

 so impoverished when compared with Discovery Bay, is never- 

 theless superior botanically to Polaris Bay and Bessel's Bay; 

 and a botanist visiting these latitudes without having explored 

 Grinnell Land to the north of Archer Fiord, an area north of 

 all the others, would cany away a most erroneous impression on 

 the subject, reckoning, as he would, some thirty instead of seventy 

 species. 



X. Bessel's Bay and Hannah Island, lat. 81° 4' to 81° 7', 



August 24, 25, 1875. 



This shore is composed of a hard limestone with little or no 

 talus or low ground, descending from 800 to 1000 feet to the sea. 

 It is almost destitute of vegetation, clad with an ice-cap, and has 

 many glaciers discharging to the sea. Upon Hannah Island 

 Caress nardina was very plentiful ; while on the shores of Bessel's 

 Bay Dr. Moss obtained specimens of Poa alpina, a high latitude in 

 Greenland for this grass, which was subsequently obtained in 

 Polaris Bay. * J 



XI. Polaeis Bay, lat. 81° 40', May 12 to 18, 1876. 

 My visit here was much too early for any satisfactory explora- 

 tion of the botany of this district. Nevertheless a severe and 

 continuous gale of wind, which detained our sledges for some 

 days, exposed the surface in many places and enabled me to 

 recognize several withered plants. Later on, however, in July 

 and August, Dr. Coppinger, during a lengthened sojourn here, 



